Noel de Castelnau

Noel de Castelnau (24 December 1851-19 March 1944) was a General in the French Army during World War I and a Republican Federation politician.

Biography
Noel de Castelnau was born in Saint-Affrique, Languedoc, France in 1851, and he joined the French Army in 1870 and fought in the Franco-Prussian War. From 1911 to 1914, he served as Joseph Joffre's deputy, and he developed the strategic plan for the recapture of Alsace-Lorraine as part of a planned invasion of Germany. He commanded the Second Army at the Battle of the Frontiers in 1914, and, in June 1915, he was given command of the Central Army Group. Castelnau organized the original defense at the Battle of Verdun before appointing Philippe Petain to the command, and he retired from active service in 1916. In 1918, he was recalled from diplomatic duties in Russia to command the Eastern Army Group during its advance into Lorraine. In 1919, he was elected to Parliament as a Republican Federation member, and he was an active supporter of Catholicism. He died in 1944.